Promise of Love
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: For the first time, the Prince makes a new year's resolution, and Beast has hope.  Het.


Title: "Promise of Love"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Rating: PG  
>Summary: For the first time, the Prince makes a new year's resolution, and Beast has hope.<br>Warnings: Het  
>Word Count: 812<br>Date Written: 31 December, 2011  
>Challenge: For the XDisneyDreamers LJ comm's challenge for the week of 29 April, 2011 for Thrice's "The Lion and the Wolf"<br>Disclaimer: Beast, Belle, all other characters mentioned within, and Beauty and the Beast are ﾩ & TM Disney, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

He held her beautiful face in his paws and gazed into her deep, brown eyes. Lately, she'd started to look at him in a new light, but the Prince didn't dare to accept the adoring expression in her eyes. It was too much to hope for to think she could really adore the monster he was, but that was his new year's resolution.

He'd never bothered to set a resolution before. When he'd been human, there'd not been a single thing about himself he'd thought needed changing. Once he'd been cursed, he'd thought any possible changes would come too late except for some one to love him and that he'd believed impossible until these last few weeks with Belle.

He couldn't order her to love him: he'd learned that swiftly the first night he'd held her captive. Yet he could change to make her love him, he thought, and he would do just that. Soft tendrils of Belle's lush, brown hair fell over his paws. He wouldn't think of how fragile the neck he held in his beastly paws was nor how easily he could crush out the life beating therein. She could crush him, bring his entire world and all the hopes and dreams he'd started to treasure again to a screeching and miserable end with but one word.

He didn't deserve her love. He was a monster who should be impossible of ever earning it, but he would, he vowed silently. His big ears flipped up as a great crash resounded just beyond the library door. Belle giggled and then blushed and turned away from him. She had almost kissed him, but she knew better than that. He was, after all, still a beast.

Steam blew out of Beast's hairy nostrils. He glowered at the doorway where his most loyal subjects cowered. Mrs. Potts bowed low, and Beast noted, with a strange sense of pride, that she, Cogsworth, and Lumiere still hastened little Chip out of the library before fleeing themselves.

He turned back to Belle, and his eyes widened as he saw the way the firelight shimmered on what small amount of her tender flesh showed beyond his Mother's gown. She shivered despite the heat of the fire, and Beast leaned over and quickly wrapped their shared blanket more securely around her.

Their eyes met. Beast trembled inside as he lifted his mouth up into a grin. He was certain to keep his eyes shut to prevent his fangs from flashing and frightening her. "Finish the story?" he requested humbly, his bushy tail wagging. "Please?"

She smiled back to him, and his heart jumped for joy. "Of course," she replied and started to settle back down.

"How does it end?" he pressed. "Does the Prince rescue the Princess? Are they happy?" His eyes were as big and hopeful as a child's on Christmas Eve.

"Yes, of course," Belle answered swiftly, smiling. She reached out and stroked his paw. When she'd first met him, she had thought his fangs to be the biggest and most horrible thing she'd ever seen, but now she'd forgotten his fangs. His eyes and heart were instead the biggest things about the noble beast sitting beside her. He was trying to keep his tail from wagging with his eagerness and hopefulness and thought she wouldn't notice, and Belle slyly kept her brown eyes from trailing to his tail as it thumped on the library floor. She gazed deeply into his handsome eyes instead. "True love always gets its happily ever afters."

Beast trembled with delight as she stroked his fur. Part of him wanted to howl with sorrow as she pulled her hand away to go back to the book, but he kept smiling nonetheless, his resolve determined and his heart and soul truly hopeful for the first time ever.

He was her Prince. She would come to love him, and that love would free not only himself but his subjects as well. They'd all be happy, and he would love his sweet Belle forever!

Belle hid her knowing smile behind the book. Beast didn't realize it yet, and she'd not tell him for he'd surely stop and be embarrassed if she did, but he was so happy he was purring.

They'd have their happily ever after soon, they both thought together, just as soon, to Belle's mind, as she could muster up the courage to tell him she had fallen in love with him and, to Beast's, as soon as he could change into the gentleman he should be and earn her love. They would see, they thought with secret smiles; they'd each surprise the other. Together, they'd be happy and in love forever more, and the coming years would be the best of all their lives spent together loving each other truly all throughout the rest of their lives and happily ever after.

**The End**


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